Bagore Bathily - CEO of La Laiterie Du Berger

The 2012 Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship formed part of the Third Annual African Leadership Network’s (ALN) Entrepreneurship in Africa Summit in Accra, providing a grand opportunity for more than 1,200 companies representing eight African nations to impress judges. Now in their sixth year, the awards have become Africa’s most prestigious business and entrepreneurship honors.

The top 12 companies represented a wide range of industries, including manufacturing, information technology, education, agribusiness and financial services, with winners taking home a total of $200,000 in prize money. They were selected by a rigorous screening process that focused on each company’s business model, financial health, integrity of business practices and contribution to socio-economic development.

The Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship recognize and award exceptional entrepreneurial leaders who serve as role models to Africa’s aspiring entrepreneurs and demonstrate business excellence, innovation and profitability. 

“The quality, diversity and number of the entrants demonstrates the immense potential of entrepreneurs to contribute to Africa’s development,” said Malik Fal, Managing Director for Omidyar Network Africa.

The 2012 awards used a panel of eight eminent African business leaders to select winners in four categories: Outstanding Small and Growing Business Award, revenues between $500,000 and $5 million; Mature Business Award, revenues between $5 million and $50 million; Transformational Business Award, bestowed on a notable business leader who has had a major socio-economic impact in Africa, revenues greater than $50 million; and the Lifetime Achievement Award, given to a senior African business leader who has served as an entrepreneurial icon for decades and has left an enduring legacy of success in Africa.

“These awards shine a light on Africa’s most promising entrepreneurs and distinguish them as role models for the next generation of entrepreneurs. We hope that the recognition will help them have even greater impact on the continent,” said Fred Swaniker, CEO and co-founder of the African Leadership Network.

Popular winner of the Outstanding Small and Growing Business Award, Bagore Bathily of Senegal, is CEO of La Laiterie Du Berger, Senegal’s only dairy processing company that sources and processes milk from semi-nomadic Fulani pastoralists living along the Senegal River. He walked away with a prize of $50,000.

Bathily, a 38-year-old entrepreneur and trained veterinarian, told ChinAfrica when he first mentioned to his friends in 2006 that he wanted to start up a dairy business they laughed at him. “In the beginning I had no time for new ideas and was just focused on finding funding,” he said.

He partnered with people skilled in the dairy industry and got venture capital funding from Crédit Agricole in France. Bathily is calm and smiles easily, saying hiring and partnering with the right people was crucial to his success.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. Richard John Pelwana Maponya, 85-year-old South African property and retail entrepreneurial icon

In Senegal, 90 percent of all milk consumed is made from imported powder milk, despite over 30 percent of its population living off livestock. La Laiterie du Berger is a remarkable example of social entrepreneurship.  The company acts as an interface between cattle herders and consumers, providing technical services to pastoralists and improving its profitability by processing milk into high-value dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, and pasteurized milk.

“It’s important to have a strong supply chain and add value to the product,” said Bathily, adding that the company simplified its business in 2010 by focusing on yogurts and cream. The yogurt brand has become extremely popular in Senegal. Partnering with Danone, the world famous food brand, the idea was conceived to sell yogurt in a small, colorful, 50-gram pouch that consumers could tear open to squeeze out the yogurt, priced at 10 cents. The yogurt is called “Dolima,” meaning “Give me more” in Wolof, the local language, and provides much needed nutrition in a country where many live on around $6 a day.

It’s a classic example of making a positive social impact while creating wealth. The company now employs more than 100 people directly.

La Laiterie du Berger has successfully set up an efficient network for collecting more than 2,500 liters of milk a day from 946 dairy farmers at its main processing plant at Richard Toll in northern Senegal. Since its opening in late 2006, production has grown to 4,000 kg of finished dairy products per day.

“Now I want to take the same operation model and move into West Africa,” said Bathily.

(Reporting from Ghana)

Other Winners

> Lifetime Achievement Award: Dr. Richard John Pelwana Maponya, 85-year-old South African property and retail entrepreneurial icon

> Transformational Business Award: Quality Chemical Industries Ltd., a leading Ugandan life sciences and distribution company that manufactures triple-combination antiretroviral (ARV) drugs in Sub-Sahara Africa

> Outstanding Mature Business Award: Secure ID Nigerian Smart Card manufacturing company that runs the leading Europay-, MasterCard- and Visa-certified card plant in West Africa, one of six such companies in Africa, and 80 worldwide